Archive for February, 2014

Volkswagen has successfully modernized their customer feedback system to use e-mail surveys to help the company find and fix problems in new Volkswagen cars faster as it tries to lift its below-average quality scores. According to VW Group of America’s Executive Vice President of Group Quality Marc Trahan, “You won’t see any big leaps, but you’re going to see continuous pragmatic improvement year after year.”

The paper survey, which was used by VW in the past, was modeled after J.D. Power and Associates’ Initial Quality Study and was sent to customers 45 days after a purchase, and it often came too late for VW to fix problems as quickly as it would like. The email survey, also based on J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Study, is sent 30 days after a purchase and allows customers to elaborate on issues they choose to, creating a better experience overall.

The email survey has also cut feedback retrieval times from four months to two, and because VW now sends out more e-mail surveys than it sent paper surveys, and because the response rate is higher for the e-mails than it had been for the letters, Volkswagen says that they have a wider spectrum of survey information available.

According to Volkswagen, quality has risen in the past three years and that

the company wants it to improve to better than the industry average of 113 problems per 100 units for the 2014 model year. Last year, survey feedback helped VW discover and resolve a problem with shuddering transmissions. The company had a software fix on the market within two months.

For more information on how your feedback can improve your next Volkswagen purchase, visit Chapman VW Tucson.